Talked to a Costco recruiter last month for an e-commerce SWE role and wanted to write this up because the recruiter screen was different from what I expected based on my Big Tech experience.
First: it was a real human call, not a video, not an async HireVue. 30 minutes on the phone. The recruiter was unhurried and conversational. I felt like she'd actually read my resume.
What she asked (roughly): Walk me through your background and what you're looking for in your next role. What specifically drew you to Costco? (They ask this. Have a real answer.) What's your current total compensation and what are your expectations? (Asked early, direct, no games) Are you open to being fully onsite in Issaquah? (Remote is limited for most roles) Do you have experience with high-volume transactional systems? What's your timeline?
No technical questions in the recruiter screen. That's all saved for the hiring manager phone screen, which is separate.
The "what drew you to Costco" question tripped me up a little. I gave a generic answer about the business model and she gently pushed back with "is there anything specific about the engineering challenges here that interests you." Fair question. I got a better answer out by talking about the scale of their e-commerce vs. their warehouse infrastructure and how that tension is actually interesting to work on.
Comp: she was direct. She said the range for senior roles was $155k-$190k base (this was early 2026, Issaquah/Seattle area) and asked if that worked for me. No equity for non-exec roles. Benefits are strong: health, 401k, the membership, and reportedly some profit sharing at certain levels.
If you're coming from a company with RSUs, model out the total comp carefully before getting excited about the base numbers. It's not apples to apples.